Isaiah’s Return

Not ploughshares?

Then beat your swords directly into coffins.
Fill them with the shredded flesh of your sons,
and bury them deep.

Then go to the scorched places
that once housed your holy shrines,
and pray from the desiccated hollows
that once held your human heart.

Offer your prayers to whomever you think hears them,
and pray for a good harvest
of that which you have sown:
jagged fields of sword blades
and hectares of bloated coffins.

Or, are there among you
any with courage enough
to sow otherwise,
so that from those dead places
of rust and lead
will spring instead
blades
of grass?

Sheri Lindner
Port Washington, NY
USA
Donated to International Red Cross